Monday, December 26, 2016

And buy on Amazon.Find a fulfilling career that tackles the world's most pressing problems, using this guide based on five years of research alongside academics at Oxford.

You have about 80,000 hours in your career: 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 40 years. This means your choice of career is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. Make the right choices, and you can help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, as well as have a more rewarding, interesting life. For such an important decision, however, there’s surprisingly little good advice out there.

Most career advice focuses on things like how to write a CV, and much of the rest is just (misleading) platitudes like “follow your passion”. Most people we speak to don’t even use career advice – they just speak to friends and try to figure it out for themselves.

When it comes to helping others with your career, the advice usually assumes you need to work as a teacher, doctor, charity worker, and so on, even though these paths might not be a good fit for you, and were not what the highest-impact people in history did.

This guide is based on five years of research conducted alongside academics at the University of Oxford. It aims to help you find a career you enjoy, you’re good at, and that tackles the world’s most pressing problems.

It covers topics like:

1. What makes for a dream job, and why “follow your passion” can be misleading. 2. Why the most effective ways to make a difference aren’t always the obvious ones like working at a charity, or becoming a doctor. 3. How to compare global problems, like climate change and education, in terms of their scale and urgency. 4. How to discover and develop your strengths.

It’s also full of practical tips and tools. At the end, you'll have a plan to use your career in a way that's fulfilling and does good.

What people are saying

“Based on evidence and good sense, not platitudes” - Steven Pinker, New York Times bestselling author Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.

“This incredible group is helping people have a greater social impact with their careers.” - Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This book is based on the free guide you can find on the 80,000 Hours website, where you can find many more articles and our most up-to-date content. All profits from the book are used to fund 80,000 Hours, expanding our research and enabling us to reach more people.

About the authors

80,000 Hours is an independent non-profit founded in Oxford in 2011. It performs research into career choice, and provides online and in-person advice.

Benjamin Todd is the CEO and co-founder of 80,000 Hours. He grew the organization from a student society at Oxford to a non-profit that's raised $1.3m in donations, and has 100,000 monthly readers. He has a Master’s degree in Physics and Philosophy from Oxford; has published in climate physics; and speaks Chinese, badly.

Ben is advised by the rest of the 80,000 Hours team, including Professor Will MacAskill, author of Doing Good Better, co-founder of the Effective Altruism movement, and the youngest tenured professor of philosophy in the world.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

I am working on a college student-success book and am looking for collaborators. Information is below. Interested in contributing? Email me! It will be an open access book and also available on Amazon.

A Rulebook for Students

Success
in College

&
Beyond

About this book

Some
rules are meant to be broken and there are exceptions to many rules. For
college students, though, there are rules they can follow that will
contribute to success in their classes: they will learn more, have more
enjoyable and rewarding class experiences, impress their professors with their
involvement and quality work and, perhaps most importantly, get better grades.

College is an opportunity that can open
the door to greater opportunities, and the more you make of your opportunities
in college, the greater your chances for success beyond college, in many ways.
Following these rules below will increase your likelihood of success, in many ways.

Below is first a list of rules, and
below that list is a discussion of each rule. When any rule seems obvious,
consider it a good reminder of what you should do. If any rule is new to you,
think about how you can integrate into your practices as a student. And since a
basic rule of college is to think
critically, if you think some rule is a bad one, let us know why: you may be right!

With this all in
mind, let us turn to the rules and the discussion of them.

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Many people say that violence is wrong, and that violence is only morally justified under extreme circumstances. But what about violence towards animals? On any common definition of 'violence', animals are treated violently when they are raised and killed to be eaten, or experimented on for medical research or used for other purposes that, arguably, harm them. What, if anything, then would justify this violence? What, if anything, would morally justify common, yet often very violent, treatment and uses of animals? In this course, we will explore a range of answers to these questions, given by influential philosophers, scientists and advocates on all sides. Topics include: theories of ethics, animal minds, and ethical issues concerning the uses of animals for food, clothing, experimentation, entertainment, hunting, as companions or pets, and other purposes.

Nathan Nobis

1000-Word Philosophy

1000-Word Philosophy

Animals & Ethics 101

Real Life: This is not a Game: Personal Finance for Young Adults (paperback)

Real Life: This is not a Game: Personal Finance for Young Adults (Kindle)

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"The ultimate measure of a person is not where he or she stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he or she stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse, '48)